The ultimate insider brought in to prepare the Labour Party for government after 14 years in the cold left Starmer floundering and was forced to quit: what happened?
Great article, thanks for posting. I once had a great boss who used to hate people talking about “ONLY admin” - how right he was! A good administrator is worth their weight in gold, however they don’t always travel well on to more diverse (and risky) roles - as was the case with Gray
A thoughtful and fair piece. I’d had a similar thought about Gray’s career. I think the reason why making McSweeney Chief of Staff has staunched the flow of briefings about dysfunction in No 10 is fairly obvious.
Following up on my previous comment, I’m no writer, have no desire to be a writer, am certainly not going to start a paid newsletter, but my thoughts on Starmer failing to utilise the gift of a 5 year term and instead obsessing about reelection from day one, symbolised in McSweeney as CoS are to long for a reply, so I write them here (and really these thoughts apply to all new UK Govts )
The quote this week where McSweeney seems to have gone full Cummings, not only believing he’s the puppet master who really runs the country but in true Cummings style letting that leak is the most troubling thing to come out of that book
Why a campaign strategist is chief of staff when we’re more than 4 years from an election is bad enough, but it’s even worse if his ego has reached Cummings levels, Starmer, if he can prove that quote is genuine and especially if he finds out McSweeney or one of his closest aides (I refuse to use the word ‘allies’ the most toxic word in UK political journalism and for inflicting that word into lobby journalism the reason Tim Shipman should be sent to a gulag) is the one who leaked it/used it, then Starmer needs to send him to Transport House where the campaign team belongs thus far from an election
An interesting piece. For me the most extraordinary thing is the light this casts on the way British elites work, or don't. As a civil servant myself at the time she took up the new role, I think most senior people were astonished. She has many qualities and was effective in her fixer/enforcer roles- but the pattern of hoarding information, enjoying having power on individual decisions while being apparently unable to think systematically were clear from her Whitehall career. Either Starmer and other senior Labour figures didn't ask or hear about the views of those who'd been her colleagues over decades, or they didn't think their views mattered. Neither is particularly encouraging.
Great article, thanks for posting. I once had a great boss who used to hate people talking about “ONLY admin” - how right he was! A good administrator is worth their weight in gold, however they don’t always travel well on to more diverse (and risky) roles - as was the case with Gray
A thoughtful and fair piece. I’d had a similar thought about Gray’s career. I think the reason why making McSweeney Chief of Staff has staunched the flow of briefings about dysfunction in No 10 is fairly obvious.
Following up on my previous comment, I’m no writer, have no desire to be a writer, am certainly not going to start a paid newsletter, but my thoughts on Starmer failing to utilise the gift of a 5 year term and instead obsessing about reelection from day one, symbolised in McSweeney as CoS are to long for a reply, so I write them here (and really these thoughts apply to all new UK Govts )
https://open.substack.com/pub/pommylee/p/you-can-change-a-country-in-five?r=mjdx&utm_medium=ios
The quote this week where McSweeney seems to have gone full Cummings, not only believing he’s the puppet master who really runs the country but in true Cummings style letting that leak is the most troubling thing to come out of that book
Why a campaign strategist is chief of staff when we’re more than 4 years from an election is bad enough, but it’s even worse if his ego has reached Cummings levels, Starmer, if he can prove that quote is genuine and especially if he finds out McSweeney or one of his closest aides (I refuse to use the word ‘allies’ the most toxic word in UK political journalism and for inflicting that word into lobby journalism the reason Tim Shipman should be sent to a gulag) is the one who leaked it/used it, then Starmer needs to send him to Transport House where the campaign team belongs thus far from an election
An interesting piece. For me the most extraordinary thing is the light this casts on the way British elites work, or don't. As a civil servant myself at the time she took up the new role, I think most senior people were astonished. She has many qualities and was effective in her fixer/enforcer roles- but the pattern of hoarding information, enjoying having power on individual decisions while being apparently unable to think systematically were clear from her Whitehall career. Either Starmer and other senior Labour figures didn't ask or hear about the views of those who'd been her colleagues over decades, or they didn't think their views mattered. Neither is particularly encouraging.